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| PAGAN STATUARY, NATIONAL GALLERY, DUBLIN. -In no portion of the National Gallery of Ireland will the curious visitor find more of antique interest than in that section devoted to the sculpture of Nineveh and Egypt, as partially shown in the sketch. Nearly all the slabs and entablatures arrayed upon the walls bear upon war and the chase. If we could closely observe them all, we would see warriors swimming a river on skins inflated with air-a custom still said to be in practice among the Mesopotamian Arabs. Then there is a representation of an exciting lion hunt, and two slabs from the Palace of Nimrod show the Sacred Tree and a King seated between two grotesque deities. All the effigies are life size. Two of the most interesting figures in the collection are those of a winged, human headed bull and a lion, both nearly ten feet high and of proportionate width. Henry Doyle, C.B.R.H. ., says of those peculiar works of pagan artists: "These mystic combinations, typical of mental power, physical strength and antiquity, were placed at the portals of the various chambers and temples. While conventional in treatment, they exhibit great skill and knowledge on the part of the sculptors." The originals are in the British Museum. The statuary on the left of the "lion" is Egyptian -one piece represents the head of Bubastes, the Diana of Egypt, and the other Amenophis III, also represented by the statue of the Vocal Mamnor on the banks of the Nile. |
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